


Mistaken Partners

by WanderingAlice



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Mutual Pining, domestic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9654593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingAlice/pseuds/WanderingAlice
Summary: Keith lives with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, which is... working alright. His next door neighbor is hot, but probably taken, which... isn't as alright.Shiro and Allura share rent, which is great. One of their neighbors is amazing, but probably dating one of the other boys in his house, which is less great.And then Lance and Hunk get engaged.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was for a prompt on tumblr that the plot bunny took and bit me with. It's my first finished fic for this fandom, though I have quite a few that are in progress. I'd love to know what you think. Thanks for reading!!

“Sooo... still staring at Pretty Boy out there, huh?” Lance asked, elbowing Keith and winking suggestively. Keith growled in response. His roommate was an ass. He still doesn’t know how he agreed to share a house with this disaster of a human being.

“None of your business, Lance.” 

“Let Keith alone, Lance. You know he’s still upset about Allura moving in.” And there was Hunk, a sweet guy with terrible taste in fiances. 

“I’m not staring!” Keith leveled a glare at the pair of them, turning his back on the window where, contrary to what he’d said, he  _had_  been staring at their neighbor, who was currently outside in nothing but a tank top and shorts, mowing the lawn. 

Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane. Shiro was an ex-marine, given an honorable discharge after losing his arm. He’d moved into the house next door soon after, where Keith had met him. The pair had struck up a friendship relatively quickly, and Keith had developed a massive crush. Not that it did him any good. Shiro was most definitely taken by the beautiful woman who Keith had just helped move into the house. Allura DeAltea had been in charge of Shiro’s unit. She’d been all Shiro had talked about for the past two months while waiting for her to come back from deployment. 

“Ooh, he’s mowing the lawn,” a voice said from behind him, and Keith turned, startled, to see his third housemate had sneaked behind him and was peering out the window. 

“Pidge!” Keith hated when they ganged up on him. 

Pidge grinned at him with false innocence. “You know, it looks like Allura is out for the day. Shiro could probably use some company.

... Keith knew he was a weak, weak man. A fact that was proven when he fled the teasing of his housemates to the yard.

* * *

 

“Shiro!” Shiro turned to see Keith leaning on the railing of his porch, and waved, while his heart thudded painfully in his chest. Keith had been avoiding him lately, but Shiro couldn’t say why. He might have attributed it to wanting to give him space to re-connect with his best friend, but Keith had stopped calling him Takashi, and... Shiro just didn’t understand. Maybe it was Keith’s boyfriend, Lance. If Lance had noticed Shiro’s growing attraction to Keith and said something, maybe Keith was distancing himself to allow Shiro to save face. It sucked, but if that was what it took for Keith to be happy, Shiro didn’t mind.

“Did you come out to watch me mow?” Shiro asked with a grin. ...So maybe he wasn’t quite ready to stop flirting. So sue him. He’d stop when Keith told him to. There were plenty of friendships based on mutual flirting. And Shiro was happy to take what he could get. 

Keith blushed. That blush was part of what had attracted Shiro to him in the first place. Keith acted so tough and strong, but underneath he was as mean as a kitten. “No, just tired of people.” He thumped down the steps and sat on the bottom.

“I hate to break it to you Keith, but I’m people.” Shiro came to join him, careful to sit a few inches away so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed with sweat and lawn-clippings smell. 

“...That’s different.” Keith looked away, still blushing. Shiro smiled. 

“If you say so.”

They sat and talked together for a while. And it was almost like the past few months of distance hadn’t happened. Keith regaled him with stories of Pidge and Lance’s latest attempts at trouble making, sometimes saying things Shiro was sure were just to make him laugh. In return he told Keith stories of his time with the marines, or the latest adventure Allura had dragged him on. He tended to keep those stories short though, sometimes when he talked too much about Allura Keith looked sad. 

The moment ended with Allura’s return from visiting her uncle. As she got out of the car, Keith stood up and stretched. “Well, I should probably let you get back to the lawn.”

“It’s okay, it’s not that important. Actually, I was going to see if you wanted to come over for lunch. I was going to order pizza, which, not very original, I know, but...”

“I-” Keith was about to answer when Allura interrupted.

“Hello you two. Having a nice chat?” 

Shiro glared at her. She grinned back, and he was sure she knew exactly what she’d interrupted. 

“I was just asking Keith over for lunch. I thought you were going to be at Coran’s all day, Allura.” 

“No, he had some stuff he wanted to do. So I came home early. But I can always go meet up with some friends if you two want to... hang out.” The suggestive tone went over Keith’s head, or he completely ignored it, because he shook his head and sighed.

“Sorry Shiro, I’ve got to go make sure Hunk and Lance aren’t making terrible decisions about furniture for the new house.” 

“New house?” A cold feeling settled into Shiro’s stomach.

“Yeah,” Keith laughed. “Lance finally got off his ass and proposed. Which reminds me.” Shiro was glad he was sitting, because otherwise he might have fallen. His heart sank into his shoes, and it was all he could do to keep a neutral look on his face. He almost didn’t even notice when Keith pulled a small envelope out of his pocket and handed it to him. “Lance reminded me to invite you both to the engagement.”

“Oh! Um, yeah. Okay. Um. Congratulations.” Shiro didn’t know how he managed to make it back inside, but he was pretty sure it was thanks to Allura that he didn’t fall into a hole and break his ankle. 

Once inside, he collapsed onto a chair. Allura placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry Shiro. I know you like him.”

“I...” Shiro was in shock, but he forced himself to smile. “I’m okay. He- if he’s happy, then I’m happy.”

* * *

 

 

Between giving Shiro Lance’s invitation and the day of the party, Keith was so busy he didn’t have time to think about Shiro’s odd reaction to the news. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought he was disappointed. He did notice Allura and Shiro were together more often, and tried not to be jealous. Thankfully, wrangling Lance turned into a full-time job, since the other man was usually tempted to go over-the-top with his plans and act on ideas that were... best left in the realms of imagination. Pidge did her best to help, but she was also spending a lot of time with her hands full as Hunk quietly panicked. 

The party started with all of their friends arriving in waves. A pair of pilots Lance worked with took him aside, while Pidge and Hunk were drawn into deep technical conversation with a small group of engineers, and Keith was finally given a moment to breathe. And then the doorbell rang. With Hunk and Lance both distracted, Keith took it upon himself to greet whoever arrived. 

Shiro and Allura stood on the other side, and Keith had to stop his mind from instantly wandering to what he wanted to do with Shiro in that suit. 

“Ta- Um. Shiro. Allura. Hi!” He caught himself before using Shiro’s first name. He’d forced himself to stop when he’d realized Allura was Shiro’s girlfriend. It had seemed too familiar, since everyone else always called him Shiro. 

“Hello Keith. Thank you for inviting Shiro and I. And congratulations on the engagement.”

Keith grinned. Whatever else he thought of Allura, he liked her sense of humor. “Thanks. I’ll be happy when they finally find a place and leave me alone. It’s been disgusting watching them prepare for the wedding. Lance won’t shut up about how happy he and Hunk are.”

“Lance and Hunk?” Allura asked, shooting a strange look at Shiro, who was looking a little stunned. Keith wondered if he was feeling alright.

“Yeah. Shiro didn’t tell you? Lance and Hunk have been dating for years. Pidge and I have been taking bets on which one of them would finally propose. She’s been gloating for weeks now.”

“I see. Then we should congratulate the happy couple. Come on, Shiro.” Allura gently tugged on Shiro’s arm, then left him with Keith when he didn’t move. 

Shiro smiled at Keith, and for the first time in forever it was that bright, gentle smile that Keith had fallen in love with. “I guess you’ll need new roomates now, huh?”

“Eh. I’m sure something will come along. There’s still Pidge. We could always kidnap her brother and force him to live in Lance and Hunk’s room.” 

“True enough. And you can always move in with me if you can’t find anyone to pick up the rent,” Shiro offered. Keith forced himself to remember that Shiro didn’t mean it as a boyfriend, but just as a friend in need of a room.

“I appreciate the offer,” he told him. “But I should be fine.” Shiro seemed disappointed, but shrugged it off. 

“Well, at least Allura might be moving out soon, so you might find me asking to move in here.” He was still smiling, and didn’t seem at all put out that his girlfriend was looking at moving out.

“Oh, that sucks, I’m sorry.” Keith tried to sound sympathetic, not wanting Shiro to be upset. And yet, the idea that maybe they weren’t as happy together as he thought was giving him hope he’d tried very hard to push away. 

“It’s not so bad. It’s kind of hard living with your old CO, especially when she keeps trying to set you up with random people she meets at the store.”

Keith froze, processing the implications of that. That was when Lance came bounding over with a mischievous grin on his face, followed by Allura. 

“Hey Keith! Guess what I just found out!”

“...What?” Keith knew that look. It brought nothing but trouble.

“Allura and Shiro aren’t dating!” Lance was practically bouncing on his feet, looking between Shiro and Keith.

“You thought we were dating?” Shiro asked, glancing at Allura and Lance, then back at Keith.

“Well, it sounded like you were, the way you were talking about her!” Keith said, outwardly defensive, but inwardly he was cheering.

“To be fair, you thought Lance and Keith were dating,” Allura told Shiro, causing Keith and Lance to stop and glare at each other.

“Ugh. No way, you really thought I could date  _him_?” To his dying day, Keith will never admit that he and Lance spoke in sync, even once. And Shiro will always site this moment as evidence.

“ _And_  he’s been pining after you since practically the day you moved in!” Lance pointed out, which caused Keith to give him the glare that peeled paint.

“Shiro has been the same,” Allura said, making a wide-eyed Shiro blush. “Not that he would ever say anything to you.”

Keith turned his gaze on Shiro, who met his eyes and smiled. “I guess we were both mistaken, huh?”

“Come here, Takashi.” Keith grabbed Shiro by the tie and pulled him down to his level. Then, when Shiro showed no apprehension, he surged forward and pressed their lips together. 

When they finally broke apart, Shiro’s hands, which had crept into Keith’s hair, held him still, inches from Shiro’s face. “Still think I’m dating Lance?” he challenged.

“No,” Shiro said softly, a glint of humor in his eyes. “I think you’re dating me.”

“Sooo,” Lance drawled, looking far too pleased with himself, “do I get to add you as a ‘plus one’ to the wedding invites then?”


End file.
